The advantages of virtual machine technology have become widely recognized. Among these advantages is the ability to run multiple virtual machines on a single host platform. This makes better use of the capacity of the hardware, while still ensuring that each user enjoys the features of a “complete” computer. Depending on how it is implemented, virtualization also provides greater security, because the virtualization can isolate potentially unstable or unsafe software so that it cannot adversely affect the hardware state or system files required for running the physical (as opposed to virtual) hardware.
The advantages of various types of synchronizing storage systems are also widely recognized, such as providing a backup of some aspect of a computer system and providing the ability to revert back to a previously generated point to undo changes to some aspect of a computer system or to recover from a failure affecting the computer system. One particular use of synchronizing that is advantageous is to allow for operation in different locations where work that is performed on one system is available to another to define a point of commonality.